Noobenheim News for Nerds 
The Mojang Minecraft team announced at E3 that the latest update – “The Friendly Update” for Android, iOS, GearVR and Windows 10 mobile devices – will allow users to play together in Minecraft Realms. This relies on linking your Xbox Live account – and while currently Xbox isn’t in the list of eligible platforms, it should be joining us later in the year. While a date hasn’t been announced for including Xbox players in the update, it’s likely to happen before this year’s MINECON which will be on September 24th and 25th at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Minecraft Realms, for those unfamiliar with the term, are essentially private servers you rent directly from Mojang. This allows some benefits over hosting your own – automatic updates, 24/7 uptime, and perhaps most importantly: a white-list. Friends on your Xbox Live Friends list are automatically eligible to join, and you can invite up to 200 players (though actual gameplay is limited to either two or ten players at a time, depending on which plan you select). Realms are divided between “Pocket” Realms for mobile devices and Java Realms for gaming on Windows, Mac or Linux machines. This update unites the “Pocket” realms for mobile devices.
In addition to this, the update also adds a bunch of new features and bug fixes, as well as the ability to earn Xbox achievements on mobile platforms. Pocket Minecraft still has a ways to go to get caught up the the desktop version, but it is surely (though slowly) getting there. With the introductions of pistons in this update, we expect to see a lot of new innovations being made on mobile!
